(One drop at a time.) My journal entries about offering copies of the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and other LDS church books, mainly to immigrants in their native language, mainly in Indianapolis, Indiana. With 106 translations, the Book of Mormon (along with the Bible) is a good "Rosetta Stone" for learning English or other languages, in addition to being a missionary tool.

My goals in keeping this blog/journal are: to encourage others to offer people copies of the Book
of Mormon and the Bible, to illustrate the incredible number of recent immigrants who are eager
for bilingual material, to illustrate the ease of encountering them and offering them material,
and to make known the wonderful deeds of the Lord (Ps 105:1, Isa 12:4) in arranging many of these
encounters. I realize that the concept of offering foreign language books to strangers is just
plain weird to many people, so here are some hints if you are intrigued by this and wish to try it.
Respectful comments and constructive criticism are invited.

The goal of the book placement effort is to provide, in a friendly non-threatening way, gospel
material to someone who is willing to receive it in their native language and English.

To the recipients of these books who read this: I thank you again for allowing me
to be of service to you. I encourage you to read the material, and pray to God that He
confirm the truth of it to you. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are both the Word of God.
Living according to their teachings brings happiness.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Food storage pouch sealer. Dry pack "canning" at home.

Our stake used to seem kind of disorganized about using the local dry-pack cannery at the local LDS storehouse. Or, maybe it just seemed that way because the women handle it in Relief Society and the information and announcements never make it to Elders Quorum.

(Update, June 2008: The ward I'm in now is moving strong on "home storage" and "provident living". Things are getting more organized, and information is getting out to the whole ward, including the Elders Quorum. The whole church is putting more emphasize on home food storage, making it a priority.)

There are practical restrictions on stuff you can dry-pack, so get a list from your local cannery or your ward's cannery rep. Products packaged in the pouches should be low in moisture and oil content. Some stuff won't keep very long. You can't/shouldn't dry-pack brown rice or whole wheat flour for instance. (Whole wheat kernals, yes; whole wheat flour, no.) An oxygen absorber packet should be used in each pouch for all products except sugar.

After you open a package of oxy-absorber packets, you need to keep it closed with some kind of clip, taking out only a few at a time. They sell a clip, but I can't find it right now. At the end of your canning session, put all unused oxy packs into their own foil pouch and seal them. Putting them back in the plastic container and putting a clip over them isn't enough.

What does this have to do with the rest of my blog? I have to do something with all the beans, rice, and noodles that I buy at ethnic groceries.

5 Comments:

Ok! I'm all over the sealer and foil pouches. I'm ready to buy, but what about powdered milk, Bisquick and Krustez pancake mix in the pouches? And I can't seem to figure out how long I can store these items. Is the sealer/pouches worth is?